Monachillin in the Sierra Nevada's

This weekend I decided to stay in Granada with the hope that I would be able to experience something fun and unique about the area in which I live. A 45 minute, 1,10 euro bus ride and a 35 minute walk later I got to do just that. Monachil is a small pueblo at the base of the Sierra Nevada mountains that is a fairly popular destination for hiking and outdoor activities that was actually recommended to me by my program director. The hiking trail that my two friends and I decided to take was called Los Cahorros and it consists of a huge valley at the beginning followed by a long suspension bridge that takes you into this thin sliver between two rock faces where you walk along a small river for the duration of the hike. My friend Richie and I went climbing around on several of the rocks that would go up into these little caves, and also some of the boulders that we found later on in the hike in some of the vast areas of the Sierra Nevadas. Also with us was our friend Lindsay who functioned as the voice of reason when we we're maybe being a little stupid with where we were trying to explore / climb, and she also took some very cool pictures. One gentleman actually started yelling at us in Spanish when we were going up into this small cave. The only thing we could make out was that some guy fell before and had to get carted out be a goat drawn gourney type thing. It was akward and hilairous all at the same time, even thought the old man was upset. After eating lunch next to the water, we headed down the side of a mountain where I completley ate it after falling backwards, but luckily the rump broke my fall. For how close and easily accessible our hike was today I am hopeful that I can make it back up to check out another close by destination. Then the next thing on the list is to go Snowboarding at least one time in December. But a wonderful use of a Saturday (it was about 75 degrees all day long) and a great first experience in southern mountains of Spain.